Bomb explodes at shrine in central Bangkok

Thailand’s military rulers are facing up to the deadliest attack in the capital in recent memory after at least 19 people, including foreign tourists, were killed in a bomb blast that the government blamed on forces seeking to destroy its tourist economy.

Body parts and mangled scooters were scattered across a busy intersection in central Bangkok after the improvised device went off at about 7pm local time, 1pm Irish time, at the Erawan Hindu shrine.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast at the Erawan shrine at a major city-centre intersection. Thai forces are fighting a low-level Muslim insurgency in the predominantly Buddhist country’s south, but those rebels have rarely launched attacks outside their ethnic Malay heartland.

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Thai rescue workers transport an injured person after a bomb exploded outside a religious shrine in central Bangkok late on Monday. Photograph: Getty Images

The Department of Foreign Affairs said it has no indication of any Irish injuries but is making inquires locally through Ireland’s embassy in Bangkok.

A spokesman said anyone who is concerned for the welfare of family members can call the department on 01-4082000.

Thailand’s defence minister Prawit Wongsuwansaid “the perpetrators intended to destroy the economy and tourism, because the incident occurred in the heart of the tourism district”.

The Erawan shrine, on a busy corner near top hotels, shopping centres, offices and a hospital, is a major attraction, especially for visitors from East Asia, including China. Many ordinary Thais also worship there.

The government would set up a “war room” to co-ordinate the response to the blast, the Nation television channel quoted prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha as saying.

Two people from China and one from the Philippines were among the dead, a tourist police officer said. The latest revised death toll is 19 fatalities, with 123 injured. Media said most of them were from China and Taiwan.

“It was like a meat market,” said Marko Cunningham, a New Zealand paramedic working with a Bangkok ambulance service, who said the blast had left a 2m-wide crater.

“There were bodies everywhere. Some were shredded. There were legs where heads were supposed to be. It was horrific,” Cunningham said, adding that people several hundred metres away had been injured.

At the scene, authorities ordered onlookers back, saying they were checking for a second bomb.

“We are now looking for another two to three bombs, as we have found one suspicious object,” said national police chief Prawut Thawornsiri.

“There could be another explosion, so we have blocked off the crime scene and are asking bystanders to move back.”

Authorities stepped up security checks at some major city intersections and in tourist areas.

While initial suspicion might fall on Muslim separatists in the south, Thailand has been riven for a decade by an intense and sometimes violent struggle for power between political factions in Bangkok.

Occasional small blasts have been blamed on one side or the other. Two pipe bombs exploded outside a luxury shopping mall in the same area in February, but caused little damage.

Police said that attack was aimed at raising tension when the city was under martial law.

The army has ruled Thailand since May 2014, when it ousted an elected government after months of at times violent anti-government protests.

The shrine intersection was the site of months of anti-government protests in 2010 by supporters of ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Dozens were killed in a military crackdown and a shopping centre was set ablaze.

– (Reuters/Guardian service)